Bill Murray Did Garfield Because He Thought It Was A Coen Brothers Movie

Near the end of Zombieland, as Bill Murray is dying, Abigail asks him if he has any regrets. He simply answers, “Well, maybe Garfield.” It’s good to know that Murray actually rued that animated disaster, but now we have the reason he chose to do it in the first place. It was simple; he misread a name in the script’s writing credits. In an interview with GQ Magazine, Murray explains how he thought Joel Coen (No Country For Old Men, O Brother, Where Art Thou?) had penned Garfield when it was actually written by Joel Cohen (Daddy Day Camp, Cheaper By the Dozen).

Murray says he saw the name Coen, had a phone conversation with a producer, accepted an offer and just sort of forgot about the movie while it was filmed. When he went to record his lines was the first time he actually laid eyes on the train wreck that is the script. That’s when he recognized the error of his (and his soon to be former agents’) ways. The rest is bad movie history.

To some degree, I can buy this explanation as it’s more an error on the part of his management than his actual lapse in judgment. If he's serious, it also relatively absolves him from one of his worst movie choices ever. What he doesn’t explain is why he went on to do Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties.